Letters: North County, March 14, 2013

Carlsbad restaurant will do just fine without number

Re: The “brew-haha” over the naming of Carlsbad’s newest restaurant. Clay Harding, owner/operator of the 38 Degrees Ale House and Grill in Alhambra got his shorts all a-twist because Mayur Pavagadhi had the unmitigated temerity to name his new gastropub 38 Degrees Carlsbad.

Oh, come on. Does Mr. Harding really believe that the use of the temperature number 38 in a Carlsbad restaurant will have any possible impact on his business in Alhambra? Really? Mr. Pavagadhi and his operating partners, Steve and Anne Barr, have brought fine dining to a new, higher standard in Carlsbad Village. That their other restaurant, Catch, didn’t catch was disappointing, but not a sign of witless entrepreneurs out to make a buck at Harding’s expense. They’ll do just fine without “his” number.

And Harding is quoted (on

TheFullPint.com) as saying: “Until I have something in writing stating he will not be using the 38 name and colors, this is not settled.” Now he wants to own colors too? Egad!

John Lynn

Carlsbad

United in hope for a fair newspaper

Congratulations to the U-T San Diego North County. We have had two whole days without political cartoons bashing our president (March 5 and March 6).

Keep up the good work. Some of us keep hoping for a fair and balanced newspaper.

Eternal optimists, unite!

Mary Lee Huntington

Vista

Horse meat: Don’t knock it ‘til you try it

I am an 89-year-old World War II veteran who served in the Army from 1942 to 1946, two of them in the Asia/Pacific. On one of the islands run by the Navy, our team of 10 were invited to enjoy a “meat” meal, recently shipped in from Australia.

After a diet of “K” and/or “C” rations, anything had to be better. We dined and the meat was not bad. It was sweeter than a prime beef, but when we asked for seconds, we were told they had just enough for one serving each. Later, one of our team members said he knew what we had eaten and told us it was horse meat. He had this before in one of the southern states where he lived.

Though I have never had it again, I often wonder how many very poor and hungry people in our good oil’ U.S.A. would relish this kind of meal. I’m not advocating this, I just know that it is not harmful to be eaten, so why knock it?

Bob Cole

Carlsbad

Common core versus common sense

Re: “Educators are getting to the core of new state standards,” March 5: Common core teaching seems like another trip down memory lane that gave us the colossal failure of “sets and numbers” math teaching.

Sets and numbers required the children to learn a new language as an adjunct to learning how to do math. Can’t the eggheads learn from the past and give the kids a basic foundation in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, and then, in the middle and high school years, teach them how to balance a checkbook, create a “live within your means” budget, and, for those who are qualified for college, algebra, geometry and calculus?

Common sense would also tell us to try out something new in test markets to prove the value before leaping whole hog into expensive programs that may not work.

Paul Sims

Solana Beach

Unhappy with new version

I am extremely unhappy with the new version of the U-T San Diego North County. Encinitas is coastal San Diego and would like to have the San Diego news, not inland North County news.

Why can’t I subscribe to the San Diego edition of the U-T here in Encinitas? In the past year, the paper has said “au revoir” to unbiased journalism, but now I don’t even get the news of San Diego. Reading the paper in the morning used to be a fun experience, and I emphasize “used to be.”

I sincerely wish you would at least let us subscribe to the regular San Diego edition here in Encinitas.

Virginia Redman

Encinitas

Do you feel safer?

Alessandra Colfi (“Keep our communities safe,” March 3) thinks the Obama administration’s gun control proposals will make our communities safer. After 25 years of semi-automatic bans, waiting periods, handgun rationing and registration in California, a felon just released from prison can still get any weapon he wants within hours of hitting the street. The Aurora, Colorado and Newtown, Connecticut murderers were dangerously mentally ill persons. The National Rifle Association has pressed state and federal officials for decades to add the records of such individuals to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System database. Many states have yet to participate in providing this information. Darrell Issa, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman, repeatedly called on the administration’s top cop, Eric Holder, to explain why the United States Department of Justice shipped thousands of semi-automatic weapons to the Mexican drug cartels during “Operation Fast and Furious.” Mr. Holder stonewalled and President Obama exercised executive privilege to prevent release of documents pertinent to the investigation. Despite censure in Congress and the continuing civilian death toll in Mexico from the illegally transshipped weapons, Mr. Holder is still attorney general and leading the administration’s gun ban and registration effort.